The District Coordinator of the Port Loko District Ebola Response Center (DERC), on Sunday 21st June 2015, has described as “baseless and unfounded” claims which were said by the Member of Parliament for Constituency 53, in Bureh Kasseh Makontheh (BKM) Chiefdom Port Loko District, Hon. Hassan Sheriff, that he is not supplying food to quarantined homes in the District.

He made this statement while responding to the said allegations to members of the media at the District Health Management Team (DHMT) Office, Malakuray Road, in Port Loko Township.

Mr. Kabia further stated that, the said allegations made against him by Hon. Hassan Sheriff are not only meant but to tarnish his hard-earned reputation over the years but have the tendency to undermine the fight to eradicate the Ebola pandemic thus frustrating the efforts of all those working hard to end the plague in the District and the entire country.

He further that, the World Food Program (WFP), through Plan International Sierra Leone, supplies food to quarantined homes supervised by him adding that food is usually supplied three times every twenty-one days, that the supply process has been reviewed due to the drastic reduction in the outbreak, that supply starts from the day a suspected case of Ebola is reported and continues every seven days until the twenty-one days quarantined period.

He further disclosed that the DERC has food stock to feed over 7,000 households in the District asserting that only the less than 10,000 households now under quarantined in Portloko District that have being catered for.

Raymond Kabia further revealed that Hon. Hassan Sherriff has on several occasions signed and received Le100, 000 as transportation refund to attend meetings pertaining to ending the outbreak and other issues affecting the people who voted him into office which he underscored is sad.

He said the DERC is not in control of financial resources but is only strategizing ways of ending the outbreak maintaining that now that the President has given them 21-day ultimatum to eradicate the virus, all Members of Parliament (MPs) and other stakeholders should reside in their Constituencies or District to educate their people on the dangers of the Ebola virus.

Investigations carried by this writer and some officials from the National Ebola Response Center (NERC) confirmed that quarantined people have received abundant food and nonfood items from WFP twice in 15 days and that the process is always monitored by DERC.

Pa Momoh Kamara, quarantined at Binthomoh Village and the Headman of Yankeh Village, Amara Kamara corroborated that they are receiving more food supply than required and debunk the MP’s allegations of nonfood supplies in Quarantine homes.

However, Hon. Hassan Sheriff insisted that the people are not receiving food items from DERC and that the DERC Coordinator has not fully involved MPs in the campaign to eradicate Ebola.

Most people have attributed the continued cases of Ebola in the District to the infighting among stakeholders in the District and appealed to them to resolve their differences in the interest of the people.